There's a couple of songs on Bob Dylan's 'Modern Times' album that reminds me of the Dhamma.So at the risk of causing blood to pour from Retro's ears and hearing his blood-curdling screams from across Bass Strait, here is a little bit of contemporary Bob.

When the Deal Goes Down

In the still of the night, in the world's ancient lightWhere wisdom grows up in strifeMy bewildering brain, toils in vainThrough the darkness on the pathways of lifeEach invisible prayer is like a cloud in the airTomorrow keeps turning aroundWe live and we die, we know not whyBut I'll be with you when the deal goes down

We eat and we drink, we feel and we thinkFar down the street we strayI laugh and I cry and I'm haunted byThings I never meant nor wished to sayThe midnight rain follows the trainWe all wear the same thorny crownSoul to soul, our shadows rollAnd I'll be with you when the deal goes down

The moon gives light and shines by nightI scarcely feel the glowWe learn to live and then we forgiveO'er the road we're bound to goMore frailer than the flowers, these precious hoursThat keep us so tightly boundYou come to my eyes like a vision from the skiesAnd I'll be with you when the deal goes down

I picked up a rose and it poked through my clothesI followed the winding streamI heard the deafening noise, I felt transient joysI know they're not what they seemIn this earthly domain, full of disappointment and painYou'll never see me frownI owe my heart to you, and that's sayin' it trueAnd I'll be with you when the deal goes down

“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.” - Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:in mountain clefts and chasms,loud gush the streamlets,but great rivers flow silently.- Sutta Nipata 3.725

I find this song from Godsmack to have some interesting references, I added in brackets what kind of interpretation I make of the original text:

Spiral

Sometimes we only live for the here and now [Following the satipatthana instructions]Sometimes we're lonely Sometimes we feel we need a place to be grounded Or fly away again [A place to be grounded would the Dhamma that leads to Nibbana , as an alternative there is samsara]

I will fly away again [Samsara, the cycle of death and rebirth]Oh, I will fly away again

Why are we feeling something is familiar around us? [Remembering past lifes]Are we just dreaming? [Questioning if what is perceived as real, wondering if what we conventionaly know is not just a delusion]Always we search for the answers but nothing is found [An attempt to penetrate the truth is made, but Nibbana is not attained ]We'll fly away again [not having broken the chain of conditionality, more becoming follows]

I will fly away againOh, I will fly away again

I feel rain pouring downI wait to rot away [Death and old aging are, decay. Suffering and impermanence are seen]Live againHere forever The spiral never ends [samsara seems to be a never ending spiral]

Rot awayLive againHere foreverThe spiral never ends

It never ends

I will fly away againOh, I will fly away again [A being stuck in samsara due his ignorance]

From: The late Fr. Anthony de Mello, a Jesuit priest, influenced the world through his powerful understanding of the human condition. Through the use of parables and teaching stories, de Mello pointed the way to reclaiming our true power. Born in 1931 and died in 1987, he was known throughout the world for his writings and spiritual conferences. Excerpt from his "One Minute Wisdom"

When a new disciple came to the Master, this is the catechism he was usually subjected to:Master: "Do you know the one person who will never abandon you in the whole of your lifetime?"Disciple: "Who is it?"Master: "You."

Master: "And do you know the answer to every question you may have?"Disciple: "What is it?"Master: "You."

Mind precedes all mental states. Mind is their chief; they are all mind-wrought. If with an impure mind a person speaks or acts suffering follows him like the wheel that follows the foot of the ox.Mind precedes all mental states. Mind is their chief; they are all mind-wrought. If with a pure mind a person speaks or acts happiness follows him like his never-departing shadow.Neither mother, father, nor any other relative can do one greater good than one's own well-directed mind.One truly is the protector of oneself; who else could the protector be? With oneself fully controlled, one gains a mastery that is hard to gain.By oneself is evil done; by oneself is one defiled. By oneself is evil left undone; by oneself is one made pure. Purity and impurity depended on oneself; no one can purify another.http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka ... .budd.html

I'm curious about the kinds of non-Buddhist writing you've come across that remind you of some aspect or another of the dhamma.

They can be words from a poem, a novel, a song, a philosophical text, a scientific text, another religious tradition.... whatever..... even graffiti in public toilets!

I thought it'd be interesting to create a thread where people can post these quotes, as and when they come across something interesting.

Best wishes,zavk

A friend of mine who is spiritually eclectic is reading a book by a self-help guru that focuses on this prayer attributed to St. Francis of Assisi:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace; where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood, as to understand; to be loved, as to love; for it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life. Amen.

The first part reminds me of Dh. 17.3, which in one translation goes like this:

Where there is anger, apply lovingkindness.Where there is evil, offer good.Where there is stinginess, be generous.Where there are lies, be truthful.

The second part of the prayer reminds me of a passage in Being Nobody, Going Nowhere: Meditations on the Buddhist Path (Revised, 3rd edition, 2001) by Ayya Khema. I don't have the passage handy.

I told my friend that the prayer is very Buddhist, apart from the references to a Creator and the last line. Then I thought, "If that prayer could be translated into Buddhist terms, it might make a beautiful set of aspirations." The task has proved to be more difficult than I thought. This is my tentative, first attempt:

May I be an instrument of peace.Where there is hatred may I apply lovingkindness.Where I am wronged may I forgive.Where there is doubt may I restore confidence in the Path.Where there is despair may I offer hope.Where there is darkness may I shine the light of the Dhamma.Where there is sadness may I bring joy.

May I seek to console,to understand,to love,to give.May I follow in the footsteps of my Teacher,who arose "for the good of the many, for the happiness of the many, out of compassion for the world."

Dust in the wind, all we are is dust in the windDust in the wind, all we are is dust in the windDust in the wind, everything is dust in the wind (everything is dust in the wind)"

And the guitar line keeps looping over and over throughout the song, as if being reborn again and again, until it finally fades out into cessation at the end.

"The serene and peaceful mind is the true epitome of human achievement."-- Ajahn Chah, Living Dhamma

"To reach beyond fear and danger we must sharpen and widen our vision. We have to pierce through the deceptions that lull us into a comfortable complacency, to take a straight look down into the depths of our existence, without turning away uneasily or running after distractions." -- Bhikkhu Bodhi

People say I'm crazy doing what I'm doingWell they give me all kinds of warnings to save me from ruinWhen I say that I'm o.k. well they look at me kind of strangeSurely you're not happy now you no longer play the game

People say I'm lazy dreaming my life awayWell they give me all kinds of advice designed to enlighten meWhen I tell them that I'm doing fine watching shadows on the wallDon't you miss the big time boy you're no longer on the ball

I'm just sitting here watching the wheels go round and roundI really love to watch them rollNo longer riding on the merry-go-roundI just had to let it go

Ah, people asking questions lost in confusionWell I tell them there's no problem, only solutionsWell they shake their heads and they look at me as if Ive lost my mindI tell them there's no hurryI'm just sitting here doing time

Im just sitting here watching the wheels go round and roundI really love to watch them rollNo longer riding on the merry-go-roundI just had to let it goI just had to let it goI just had to let it go

There is one reminder that I find almost everywhere I go. Hereabouts they are found on long posts topped with red octagons containing some white lettering spelling out "STOP". This one word pretty much sums up something central to the practice of vipassana for me even though there are a lot of different ways to read that symbol as you progress along the path of insight. I've found that one tends to notice the mind doing this or that and then if and when it becomes clear that it is not an autonomous process, if it is also a counter-indicated process, one directs the mind to stop it. So, I've found that there is a lot of watching of the sign posts and a lot of stopping and waiting vigilantly for the traffic to slow down involved in vipassana.

“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.” - Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:in mountain clefts and chasms,loud gush the streamlets,but great rivers flow silently.- Sutta Nipata 3.725

nathan wrote:There is one reminder that I find almost everywhere I go. Hereabouts they are found on long posts topped with red octagons containing some white lettering spelling out "STOP". This one word pretty much sums up something central to the practice of vipassana for me even though there are a lot of different ways to read that symbol as you progress along the path of insight. I've found that one tends to notice the mind doing this or that and then if and when it becomes clear that it is not an autonomous process, if it is also a counter-indicated process, one directs the mind to stop it. So, I've found that there is a lot of watching of the sign posts and a lot of stopping and waiting vigilantly for the traffic to slow down involved in vipassana.

---The trouble is that you think you have time------Worry is the Interest, paid in advance, on a debt you may never owe------It's not what happens to you in life that is important ~ it's what you do with it ---

I walk down the street.There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.I fall in.I am lost...I am helpless.It isn't my fault.It takes forever to find a way out.

II.

I walk down the same street.There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.I pretend I don't see it.I fall in again.I can't believe I am in the same place.But, it isn't my fault.It still takes a long time to get out.

III.

I walk down the same street.There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.I see it is there.I still fall in. It's a habit.My eyes are open.I know where I am.It is my fault. I get out immediately.

IV.

I walk down the same street.There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.I walk around it.

V.

I walk down another street.

Vision is MindMind is EmptyEmptiness is Clear LightClear Light is UnionUnion is Great Bliss

Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand; Surely the Second Coming is at hand. The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand; A shape with lion body and the head of a man, A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun, Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds. The darkness drops again but now I know That twenty centuries of stony sleep Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle, And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

.

++++++++++++++++This being is bound to samsara, kamma is his means for going beyond. -- SN I, 38.

There is freedom from birth, freedom from becoming, freedom from making, freedom from conditioning. If there were not this freedom from birth, freedom from becoming, freedom from making, freedom from conditioning, then escape from that which is birth, becoming, making, conditioning, would not be known here. -- Ud 80

Ar scáth a chéile a mhaireas na daoine.People live in one another’s shelter.

Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand; Surely the Second Coming is at hand. The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand; A shape with lion body and the head of a man, A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun, Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds. The darkness drops again but now I know That twenty centuries of stony sleep Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle, And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

There are echos of something much more ancient than Buddhism in this.

Vision is MindMind is EmptyEmptiness is Clear LightClear Light is UnionUnion is Great Bliss